Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Radio Times review

The gripes up for consideration run the gamut from the trivial (people who make up rules in Monopoly) to the vehemently political (George Osborne and "all his friends in the cabinet").

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Charles Dance and comedian Andi Osho are the nominees, and surprisingly it's the dandyish star of Changing Rooms who proves most entertaining and witty. His diatribe against beige "in all its gory; its understated, delusional blandeur" is a particular highlight.

There's not too much combative banter between the guests, except when Osho claims Charles Dance sounds like the sort of name you'd make up to avoid embarrassment at an STD clinic. Delightful.

Television at this time of year is a bit like my lawn at this time of year - patchy, barren, brown, cracked; you get the idea. Weekends are especially desperate. If you don't like sport, you're screwed - lost in a parched desert of nothingness (as opposed to one of those deserts that are full of stuff). Hell, you may even have to drag your fat arse off the sofa and do something different - go and water the garden, perhaps. Sprinkler - it's a nice word isn't it? It has some lovely consonant clusters.

What's this, then? Odd One In (ITV1, Saturday): yet another new gameshow. I see, so of these four nuns, only one is a real nun, and the teams - Peter Andre and Jason Manford v Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Katherine Kelly off Corrie - have to guess which one. Same with the guys with the beard; three are real beards, one is a fake. Which one, though?

So it's basically the odd one out round from Never Mind the Buzzcocks stretched into a whole programme. Hmmm. Oh, and made a lot more rubbish, because Bradley Walsh is no Simon Amstell; and Pete, Laurence etc are nothing like the funny people they have on NMTB. I predict a short life.

Well, we said it was light entertainment silly season. First in a double bill of new gameshows is this, hosted by Bradley Walsh. The "Home Team" of professional nice guy Peter Andre and likeable One Show recruit Jason Manford, plus an "Away Team" of two guest celebrities (first up are Coronation Street's Katherine Kelly and daytime dandy Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen), try to pick the person with a skill or secret out of a line-up by asking probing questions.

Tonight's guests, Mutya Buena, Lenny Henry and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, are squired through the surrealist miasma by Vic in an RAF uniform and Bob with an inflated head. Treats include a dolly production of the Elephant Man, Angelos Epithemiou's rendition of The Cat Crept In (brilliant) and Mutya touching a pie through a wall. You won't get that anywhere else. Curious in that it's exactly as great as it was 16 (aieee!) years ago. No worse and no better.

For years now television experts have been handing out advice on how to cook, decorate, garden, dress, clean, save money and make love. There is no aspect of our lives that a tacky lifestyle programme made on the cheap cannot address, and the more colourful the presenter, the more popular the series. So here is a resumé of television experts down the ages, from Fanny Craddock and Sir Patrick Moore to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Gordon Ramsay. As a collection of pretty ordinary clips, it is no better or worse than the original programmes. It is made bearable by the fruity wickedness of Brian Sewell, who goes down the list of experts being deliciously rude about everyone with scant disregard for the laws of libel.

Steve Jones chairs this quiz themed on the TV archives, with Fern Britton and Jason Manford captaining two teams of celebrity guests, whose calibre this week runs to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Pauline Quirke. Unable to decide whether it's edgily hip or comfortably staid, it includes items such as a human beatboxer rendering theme tunes, alongside a straightforward steal of the "What happened next?" bit from A Question of Sport.

Responding to the nationwide clamour for a return of Telly Addicts, the BBC have a new panel show about TV. It is positioned as a sort of Mock The Week for people who find current affairs a bit taxing. Handsome idiot Steve Jones from T4 is your host, while the deeply personable Fern Britton and Jason Manford are the team captains for a trivia quiz, while tonight's guests give you a fairly accurate read on the sort of 'hilarity' that will ensue: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Lauren Laverne, Pauline Quirke and Tina Hobley.